Then you have the St. Louis Cardinals, the epitome of class and history in the world of baseball. Relative to cities like New York and L.A., their market is small. So instead of spending an egregious amount of money like their Hollywood counterparts, they opted to develop their farm system through the draft. In fact, 18 of the 25 players on Cardinals roster now are all homegrown.
This series was essentially a battle between the old versus the new, the draft versus the free agency. As the title indicates, the old way won this time. The Cardinals shellacked the Dodgers, 9-0, in the decisive game of the NLCS, winning the series in six games.
But merely stating that the Cardinals crushed the Dodgers is not enough. The Dodgers ace and this year’s best pitcher, Clayton Kershaw, was forced to throw 48 pitches to 10 different batters, yielding four runs in the third inning. Kershaw wound up only lasting four innings, giving up seven runs, and 10 hits.
To give you some historical context, it was the first time he’d allowed seven runs or more in fewer than five innings since May 4, 2010 — 129 starts ago, according to ESPN.
The biggest story on the Cardinals side is that rookie Michael Wacha out-dueled Clayton Kershaw for the second time during this series. Wacha allowed only three base-runners over seven innings on his way to being named NLCS MVP. Not too bad for a 22-year-old.
Now the Cardinals must wait for the Detroit Tigers and Boston Red Sox to finish their duel.
[Standing O Sports]
